


Your Focus Determines Your Reality

by amerande



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Legends: Jedi Apprentice Series - Jude Watson & Dave Wolverton, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Flashback, Interquel, Jedi Apprentice - Freeform, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-16 04:09:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5813509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amerande/pseuds/amerande
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Qui-Gon takes Obi-Wan on precisely the sort of mission that Obi-Wan can't fully appreciate as a padawan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Focus Determines Your Reality

Obi-Wan Kenobi took a gulp from his canteen and looked around for some hint of why he was here. It wasn’t that he minded a break from the types of missions the Council normally set for them; as far as the padawan was concerned, he and Qui-Gon had done their fair share of high-stakes adventures recently and had earned a month or two of quiet training in the Temple. And yet instead of Coruscant, they were here on an unremarkable summit, having spent the day hauling themselves up the side of a mountain on what may very well be the least interesting planet Obi-Wan had ever visited. The ground was a dark grey rock that was smooth and chipped easily and made for questionable footing where it wasn’t covered by the grey-green fern which stretched off in every direction. For all Obi-Wan had seen, that type of fern was the sole inhabitant of the planet, and it had a straggly sort of half-hearted air about it which he imagined was due to how annoyingly thin the air seemed to be.

After a further moment of reflection, Obi-Wan stood and helped Qui-Gon lay out what little they needed for the night. Before too long, a malnourished fire was clinging to the remnants of some uprooted ferns, and both Jedi were seated on their bedrolls and eating their dinner - some rations which traveled well but left much to be desired. Obi-Wan caught himself thinking of the meals at the Temple. They were hardly extravagant, but they were certainly better than the sort of nutrient bricks which filled Obi-Wan’s pack.

“You did well today,” Qui-Gon said, bringing Obi-Wan back to the present. “How do you feel?”

He stretched experimentally. “Pretty well, although I might regret that fall in the morning.” While most of their climb had been physically taxing but not particularly difficult, Obi-Wan had come out the worse for wear after putting his trust in a boulder that had _really_ looked like it was going to be able to bear his weight.

“We have plenty of bacta patches.”

Obi-Wan nodded.

“We won’t be doing as much outright climbing tomorrow,” Qui-Gon added. He pointed to the far end of the summit. “There’s a trail down that way that’ll be mostly downhill.”

Obi-Wan nodded again. His master would probably warn him if they were going into something that would require him to be in peak condition. Probably. He’d risk it without the patch, then.

They talked a little before Obi-Wan finally gave in to the weariness that was creeping over him. It was a nice change, he reflected as he settled down in his bedroll. Lately, their dealings had been in territory unfamiliar to him - political maneuverings, subtle negotiations which Qui-Gon seemed to navigate with ease but which left Obi-Wan’s head spinning. This purely physical exercise, while not really adventurous, was at least straightforward.

* * *

 

An uninspiring sunrise saw Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan packing their kits and continuing on their journey. As the morning wore on, they wound their way down the far side of the mountain and into a valley that ran along the base of two more. In a refreshing change of pace from the day before, when the fern had merely stretched out in front of him as he scaled the mountainside, it now rose up on either side of Obi-Wan as he followed Qui-Gon into the increasingly narrow defile.

At last, Qui-Gon reached into his pack, pulled out two glowrods, activated them, and passed one back to Obi-Wan. Around the next turn, Obi-Wan understood why: their path ended in a gaping hole. Qui-Gon dropped down into it without a hint of concern, so Obi-Wan followed him, pleasantly surprised when the drop ended rather more quickly than he’d feared. They continued their trek through the cool, dark caverns that attached to the cave they’d entered. The glowrods picked out the outlines of stalactites and stalagmites thicker than Obi-Wan’s torso. Sometimes the cavern walls drew so close together that the two men had to turn sideways to pass along. Other times, they opened up into galleries so vast that he couldn’t see the end of them and could hear his scuffling footsteps echoed back a dozen times over.

They had their lunch in the dark of the caves and continued on.

Obi-Wan noticed it was getting brighter long before any real light source was visible. One cave was barely less inky than the one before, but the next was just a little lighter, and so it continued as they went from one passage to the next, until they could put away their glowrods and make their way on the light that seemed to be always just around the next corner.

When the hollow they were in finally opened up, Qui-Gon looked back to Obi-Wan, a smile playing around the corners of his eyes.

It was an impressive sight - one Obi-Wan wouldn’t have thought such a boring planet could have been home to.

The entire cavern was covered in crystals. Thick arms of some cloudy, peach-colored gem hung from the ceiling in clusters as thick as tree tree trunks and pushed up from the floor to tower above both Jedi. Some were darker and seemed to wink with flecks of gold, while others were bright and at a mirror-polish. Every wall of the place gleamed, even in the half-light that came in from the opening halfway up one wall. From that hole ran a stream of water that trickled down the crystals in a tiny waterfall before it pooled on the ground and ran off somewhere on the far side of the cave.

Qui-Gon sat beside the pool, his back to the opening, and motioned for Obi-Wan to join him.

Obi-Wan sat beside his master and drank in the sensations of the cave - the cool, pebbled crystals he was sitting on, the whisper of the moving water, and the presence of Qui-Gon beside him, a palpable, calming weight in the air. Sometimes, Qui-Gon’s unflappable stillness made Obi-Wan feel small and clumsy, a bumbling mess beside his master’s cool collectedness. Now, though, Obi-Wan felt like he shared in the peace that Qui-Gon felt. He breathed deeply and felt whole.

Moments passed, and bit by bit, the room waxed even brighter. Obi-Wan watched as the crystals seemed to soak in the golden afternoon light as it grew stronger.

Finally, the sun seemed to be aligned so that its light entered the cavern directly, so bright it might as well be a solid beam. The whole space was flooded with light so strong that Obi-Wan had to close his eyes against it momentarily as the sunlight bounced from pillar to pillar and reflected off every facet all at once.

At the same time, a humming filled the room. No, Obi-Wan thought, not a hum - it was as if a huge bell had been struck; a single tone that resonated throughout the chamber until he felt it in his bones.

The sound rebounded much as the light had, bouncing back and forth between each crystal cluster to fill the space as surely as if it were solid. It not so loud as to hurt, but it was overwhelming all the same. Obi-Wan sat, breathless, as it echoed through him.

Some time later, Obi-Wan noticed that Qui-Gon was talking to him. He shook his head at his master in confusion; he couldn’t hear at all. Qui-Gon smiled and waved his hand to dismiss the matter.

They sat like that for another quarter of an hour, until the sun had gone low enough in the sky that its light was no longer striking the crystals directly.

“That…” Obi-Wan trailed off, still feeling like he needed to catch his breath. “What _was_ that?”

“A treat,” Qui-Gon said, and he smiled at the unsatisfied look that Obi-Wan shot him. “The crystals here - there are caverns all over the planet that do the same thing when the light hits them just right. Some of them are pitched differently, based on their color.”

“What are they _for_?”

“Nothing, as far as anyone can tell,” Qui-Gon said simply. “They resonate in the light, and that’s...it.”

“Oh. So we’re not here to - to gather them? Or anything else?”

Obi-Wan had spent much of their day’s trek trying to puzzle out why they were here. When they first entered the crystal chamber, he’d figured that this was another of Qui-Gon’s unsubtle attempts to teach him to look beyond the surface of the things. The cavern had certainly changed his opinion of the otherwise boring planet. When the _resonating_ had begun, he’d changed his mind and thought they were here to gather some of the crystals for, well, whatever they might be used for.

“No, no gathering. We’re merely here to appreciate.”

Oh.

The crystals looked almost purple in the deepening shadows. Obi-Wan remembered the long journey in and began to wonder if they’d be spending the night in the cavern - sitting here was one thing, but he wasn’t so sure that the gems would make a good sleeping surface.

As if his master had heard his thoughts, Qui-Gon spoke up again. “Just over that way-” he pointed to a small opening opposite from where they had entered- “we’ll be back out to open air.”

The two rose as one and headed out. Before leaving the cavern, though, Qui-Gon bent over and retrieved a loose piece of crystal from the pool. Obi-Wan followed suit.

“I hope you’ll remember this planet,” Qui-Gon said later as they prepared for sleep. “We’ve seen a lot of the worst the galaxy has to offer, lately. Remember that there’s always some good as well. There’ll be a ship along in the morning, and we’ll go back to the Temple for a while.”

 

* * *

 

The cracks in his shutters are getting worse. What appears to be half the sand of Tatooine sits in piles over his table and counters. He sets to work brushing it onto the floor; more sand is hardly noticeable there.

_Gets everywhere_ \- but he shuts off that line of thinking before it can go anywhere further.

He sits heavily on a stool he’s just swept clear of sand, sits and watches as light drifts in lazily through the coverings on his windows. It catches what dust and sand is still in the air, winking and glittering like gold in the darkness.

Ben Kenobi closes his eyes, braces his hands on his knees - if he focuses hard enough, it’s like being a padawan at the Temple again -

or no, not at the Temple.

He opens his eyes again to watch the dust reflecting the light, and he can feel an _echo_ in his chest. If he focuses hard enough, he can hear it again - the crystal that sang like a bell in the light.

_The worst the galaxy has to offer…_

A year or more ago, he entrusted Anakin’s son to Owen Lars. Bail Organa is half the galaxy away with Anakin’s daughter. And that’s it. Millennia of Jedi teaching and tradition lying dormant, waiting for a change, for the children to grow and be taught. For - Ben’s heart stops at the very thought of it - for Darth Vader and his new master to be brought low so that order can be restored.

_There’s always some good as well_.

Ben lets his eyes close again, and if he focuses hard enough, he can see the gleaming crystals. He breathes deeply and feels whole.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Much thanks to Anne McCaffrey for Crystal Singer, the inspiration for the cave that the two Jedi visit.


End file.
